News from East Central Regional Library

July 2013

Volume 3, Issue 7

E-Connect

Newsbits for July

* Congratulations and best wishes to State Librarian Nancy Walton, who is retiring on August 1st. Nancy has been a loyal supporter to ECRL and Minnesota libraries and has been at many events here.

* Stop by the front lawn of the Chisago Lakes Branch to see the life-size sculpture of Swedish immigrant Nelly Gustafson seated in her carriage. The sculpture by Ian Dudley was unveiled on Thursday, July 11th and was funded through the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

* The Princeton Area Library was recognized as "Business of the Month" by the Princeton Chamber of Commerce.

* The Minnesota Department of Education has announced that the City of Aitkin was selected to receive a library construction grant for $341,968 for an expansion of the library. Receipt of the funds is dependent on a one-to-one match by the city. Library construction grants were funded in the 2013 Minnesota Legislature's biennial bonding bill.

Upcoming Legacy Programming

Minnesota Comic Workshop for Teens & Tweens

Sharpen your pencil, lay out your plot and hone your cartoonist skills at this MN Historical Society event. Learn how to apply techniques from a professional cartoonist! All materials provided; make your own mini-comic book. Class size is limited! Please pre-register by calling the library (320-245-2270) to sign up!

Thursday, July 25 - 2:00 pm - Sandstone Public Library

Library Day at the Kanabec County Fair

Join us for fire-eaters, sword swallowers, an aerialist and more during the Kanabec County Fair.

Thursday, July 25 -10:30 am - special presentation at the Mora Public Library

Thursday, July 25 - full circus side show at the Kanabec County Fair Grounds at 3:00 and 7:00 pm.

Marvelous Minnesota Scrapbooking Workshop

Create a small keepsake book with your favorite things and places about Minnesota. Class size is limited. Please pre-register by calling the library at 218-927-2339.

Thursday, July 30 - 4:00 pm - Aitkin Public Library

Mixed Nuts to Help Celebrate 2013 Summer Reading

Join us for physical comedy, age-appropriate humor and uproarious audience participation as this talented twosome tickle your funny bones with their hilarious hijinks

Wednesday, July 31 Mixed Nuts

10:00 am - McGregor City Hall

1:00 pm - Aitkin High School Choir Room

3:30 pm- Mille Lacs Lake Community Library - Isle

Thursday, August 1

10:30 am - East Central School Auditorium - 61085 State Hwy 23 - Finlayson, MN.

1:00 pm - Rush City Public Library

Friday, August 2

11:00 am - Princeton Area Library

1:30 pm - Milaca Community Library

Monday, August 5

1:00 pm - Chisago Lakes Area Library

3:30 pm - North Branch Area Library

Tuesday, August 6

1:30 pm - Mora Public Library

3:30 pm - Hinckley Public Library

5:00 pm - Pine City Elementary School Auditorium

Thursday, August 8

1:00 pm - Cambridge Primary School Multipurpose Room

3:30 pm - Wyoming Area Library

Barbary Coast to Perform at Library Lawn Party

Bring a lawn chair or blanket for our library lawn party as the Dixieland jazz group, Barbary Coast, performs.

Friday, August 2 - Aitkin Public Library

*All events are free and open to the public!

*All programs funded with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Call your local ECRL branch for more information about each program.

Plus there are lots of other activities going on throughout ECRL. Simply check the NewsBits at www.ecrlib.org or our Google calendar.

Staff Recommendations

The Light Between Oceans by Stedman

This was one of the last books I read. It is a story set on the coastal towns of Australia and is about a couple that tends a light house and a boat floats in one day with a dead man and a baby who is very much alive. Great read.
Betty Evans, Milaca Library aide

Panorama City by Antoine Wilson

This novel is about what happens to a 27-year old man when his father dies. The voice of the main character is really appealing and it's humorous to see how he subverts the best intentions of his aunt.
Kathy Morrow, Mille Lacs Lake Branch Librarian

The Innocent by David Baldacci
An assassin who is one of the best at his trade, Will Robie's instincts one day prevent him from completing an apparently simple mission. The Innocent is Baldacci at his very finest and is available through ECRL in print, large print, book-on-CD and eAudio formats.
Donna Larson, Rush City Branch Librarian

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy.
This book is a nice, cozy read and is set in the small coastal village of Stoneybridge, Ireland. Each chapter of the book tells the story of a different character. All of these characters come together and spend one week together at an inn.

Sue Monroe, North Branch Branch Librarian

ECRL's Mission

Connecting and strengthening communities

through the power of knowledge.

*East Central Regional Library is funded by the counties of Aitkin, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs and Pine.

ECRL also receives state and federal funds.

Author of the Month:
Vince Flynn

Best-selling Minnesota author Vince Flynn passed away on June 19, 2013. His final novel, The Survivor, will be published in October. You can place a hold on it in the ECRL Evergreen catalog.

If you enjoy Flynn's novels, try these authors: Lee Child; Tom Clancy; Jack Higgins; Robert Ludlum; Brad Meltzer; Brad Thor

Forthcoming Print Fiction in the ECRL catalog:

Search for any of these items in the ECRL Online Catalog:

*MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
*The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
*Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
*The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler
*The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson
*Cross and Burn by Val McDermid
*The Returned by Jason Mott
Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

Forthcoming DVDs to the ECRL catalog:

Search for any of these in the ECRL Online Catalog

*Amour (2012) starring Emmanuelle Riva
*And Then There Were None (1945) starring Barry Fitzgerald
*Arthur Newman (2012) starring Colin Firth
*Emperor (2012) starring Tommy Lee Jones
*Olympus Has Fallen (2013) starring Aaron Eckhart
*Seconds (1966) starring Rock Hudson
*What Maisie Knew (2013) starring Julianne Moore
*Young Pioneers (1976) starring Linda Purl

Forthcoming Print Non-Fiction in the ECRL Catalog

Search for any of these titles in the ECRL Catalog

*Zealot by Reza Aslan

*The Diary of Olga Romanov by Helen Azar

*One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson

*Shot All to Hell by Mark Lee Gardner

*Seven Days in November by Clint Hill

*Wyatt Earp by Andrew Isenberg

*Old Man River by Paul Schneider

*The Man He Became by James Tobin

Overdrive New ECRL eBook Titles

(Search for any these in the Overdrive catalog)

*All Creatures Great & Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
*Cowboy at Heart by Lori Copeland
*Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkein
*Forbidden by Beverly Lewis
*Gotcha by Fern Michaels
*How the West Really Lost God by Mary Eberstadt
*King's Deception by Steve Berry
*Man O'War by Walter Farley
*Pride by Rachel Vincent
*Unseen by Karin Slaughter

Did You Know?

1) Gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored the first "10" in Olympic history on July 18, 1976.
2) Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899.
3) World War I began on July 28, 1914 when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
4) James "Jimmy" Hoffa, former Teamsters union leader, disappeared on July 30, 1975.